The Tebay rail accident occurred when four railway workers working on the West Coast Main Line

West Coast Main Line

The West Coast Main Line is the busiest mixed-traffic railway route in Britain, being the country's most important rail backbone in terms of population served. Fast, long-distance inter-city passenger services are provided between London, the West Midlands, the North West, North Wales and the...

 were killed by a runaway wagon near Tebay

Tebay

Tebay is a village and civil parish in Cumbria, England, within the traditional borders of Westmorland. It lies in the upper Lune Valley, at the head of the Lune Gorge. The parish of Tebay had a population of 728 recorded in the 2001 census,...

, Cumbria

Cumbria

Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...

, England in the early hours of 15 February 2004.

Incident

The accident happened after a wagon laden with lengths of steel rail

Rail tracks

The track on a railway or railroad, also known as the permanent way, is the structure consisting of the rails, fasteners, sleepers and ballast , plus the underlying subgrade...

 ran away from a maintenance yard because it did not have properly working brakes. Its hydraulics had been disconnected because they were faulty but they had been not repaired or replaced. Instead wooden chocks were used to stop it moving away from the sidings. But as a maintenance worker using a crane began unloading sections of track onto a second wagon, the wagon overran its wooden blocks gathering momentum down the 1 in 75 gradient from Shap summit

Shap

Shap is a linear village and civil parish located amongst fells and isolated dales in Eden district, Cumbria, England. The village lies along the A6 road and the West Coast Main Line, and is near to the M6 motorway...

.

In darkness, the 16-tonne steel wagon reached speeds of up to 40 mile per hour as it rolled down the West Coast Main Line. Running almost silently and without any warnings, it struck the four railway workers who were carrying out overnight work 3.25 miles (5 km) further down the main line. Five men were also injured. The wagon continued to travel for almost 4 miles (6 km) until stopping.

Aftermath

Following the incident, the boss of the rail maintenance company and a crane operator were tried at Newcastle

Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...

 Crown Court

Crown Court

The Crown Court of England and Wales is, together with the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal, one of the constituent parts of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...

 on charges of manslaughter

Manslaughter

Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...

 caused by gross negligence

Gross negligence

Gross negligence is a legal concept which means serious carelessness. Negligence is the opposite of diligence, or being careful. The standard of ordinary negligence is what conduct one expects from the proverbial "reasonable person"...

. The company boss was also prosecuted over breaches of health and safety law. Both men were found guilty by majority verdicts and imprisoned for nine years and two years respectively. The families of the victims said it was 'a victory' to have the two men jailed.

On 1 March 2007, an appeal launched by the two jailed men seeking to overturn the convictions failed, although the Court of Appeal

Court of Appeal of England and Wales

The Court of Appeal of England and Wales is the second most senior court in the English legal system, with only the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom above it...

 did reduce the former boss's sentence from nine years to seven.

There is a small plaque at the site of the Tebay incident, with the names of the deceased, which was erected in September 2006.

List of the deceased

• Colin Buckley, 49, of Carnforth
  Carnforth
  - References :...
  
  ;
• Darren Burgess, 30, also of Carnforth;
• Chris Waters, 53, of Morecambe
  Morecambe
  Morecambe is a resort town and civil parish within the City of Lancaster in Lancashire, England. As of 2001 it has a resident population of 38,917. It faces into Morecambe Bay...
  
  ;
• Gary Tindall, 46, of Tebay.

External links

• Pair jailed for Tebay rail deaths - BBC News
  BBC News
  BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
  
  
• Rail deaths evidence thrown out - RMT
  RMT
  RMT is an abbreviation for:*Regie voor Maritiem Transport, Belgian, state owned ferry company.*National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, a United Kingdom trade union*Real-money trading, a type of virtual economy...
  
  rail union website news
• Tebay rail death appeal bid fails - BBC News